Revisiting Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson's 'Winter in America'

When Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson released their album Winter in America in 1974, they did it against a backdrop of political unrest: President Nixon had resigned and civil unrest was growing as protests continued against the ongoing Vietnam War.

In this session, World Cafe correspondent John Morrison talks about how what was happening in the United States made its way onto the album and into Scott-Heron's words.

"It's overtly political, but the way he talks about politics, he kind of balances, like, the micro personal politic with the macro systemic stuff," Morrison says.

Morrison explains how Scott-Heron wove those messages into the album, plus how the music still resonates half a century later.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.